Legal Aid of East Tennessee is partnering with Erlanger Health System to create the Erlanger Health Law Partnership. The program will provide free legal services to Erlanger patients whose household incomes are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
EHLP was founded to address the poverty-driven risk factors that affect the health of Erlanger’s patients, Dale Hetzler, general counsel at Erlanger, said December 19 at a press conference announcing the partnership. He also said the program will remove the barriers poor people face when attempting to access the services of an attorney, including lack of transportation, lack of knowledge about the availability of services, mistrust of the legal system and language barriers.
Charlesetta Woodward-Thompson, interim CEO and president of Erlanger, said she’s proud of the medical staff at the hospital for supporting EHLP, as Erlanger is concerned about everyone throughout the Chattanooga community.
“A lot of the people who come here have problems outside the health care arena.” Woodward-Thompson said. “If a woman is battered, she might use our hospital as a refuge. But we don’t want her to have to go home and face the same problems that brought her to us. We’d like to help her with those issues,” she said.
When EHLP is launched in January 2012, Legal Aid will place an attorney in Erlanger’s main campus to help patients with issues such as substandard housing, lack of access to public support programs and family violence.
An EHLP brochure available at the press conference provided examples of how the program could address the legal issues that affect a patient’s health. In one illustration, a young boy with chronic asthma goes to the emergency department multiple times. The doctor is only able to address the asthma, but an EHLP attorney determines the cause: an apartment infested with mold. The lawyer then pursues safe, secure housing for the boy and his family.
In another example, a grandmother cares for her three young grandchildren, one of whom is seriously ill, following the death of her daughter. An EHLP lawyer assists her in becoming the children’s legal guardian so she can consent to medical care for her sick grandchild.
Dr. Cyrus Huffman, chief medical officer at Erlanger, said the health outcomes of patients who live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level are “dramatically worse” than those with more income. He said national statistics verify that babies are more likely to die before their first birthday, asthmatic children have more trouble breathing, and therefore miss more school and die more frequently, and adults and the elderly suffer similar adverse outcomes. Therefore, he and his colleagues prize their partnership with the legal profession
“Inside the walls of this hospital, our doctors and nurses work hard to treat everybody well – whether they’re from the wealthiest or the poorest family in Hamilton County. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we work, we have little control over what happens when a patient leaves our facility,” he said.
Russell Fowler, associate director of Legal Aid of East Tennessee, said over 100,000 people in the organization’s service area are eligible for legal aid, but a recent decrease in federal funding is making it difficult for it to serve all of the people who need its help. However, Legal Aid’s partnership with Erlanger will help it to continue to make a difference in the Chattanooga community, he said.
“Lawyers and doctors have a lot in common: We all got into this business to help people. We also focus on helping people with the most critical problems you can imagine,” Fowler said. “And both professions think they can fix everyone all of the time. But that’s not true.
“However, through this partnership, we’re going to show that together, we can help more people achieve lasting solutions that will allow them to get on with their lives and be successful. And as poor people get healthier and our legal system becomes more fair, all of Chattanooga will benefit.”
Fowler then introduced Emily Lay, the attorney that will be providing patients at Erlanger with legal assistance.
Judge W. Neil Thomas III was on hand to represent the support of the local judiciary. He praised the partnership in his comments at the press conference.
“I’m glad to see this program in Chattanooga and Hamilton County,” he said. “It’s a great partnership.”